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Wednesday, February 22, 2017

One of Prince Charles’ virtues (he has many in my opinion –
for which he gets scant appreciation at home and abroad) is his consistent
public commitment to addressing climate change.Within the limits imposed on him by his royal position, he
has been a strong voice for action.His latest initiative is a book for popular audiences, entitled simply Climate Change (may still be difficult
to find in the US).

The book (co-authored with two climate scientists) is a
simple, well-illustrated introduction to the topic.In fact, it looks
like a children’s book, but isn’t.(The publishing genealogy of these “Ladybird Expert” books can be found
here.The next book in the series
is on quantum mechanics!)

I’m not sure what impact this little book will have in the
UK, let alone this country, but folks who work on climate change communications
issues should definitely give it a look.Maybe Scott Pruitt should read it!

Tuesday, February 7, 2017

There is often a lot to learn from checking on what our
European counterparts are doing.

A report was just released describing how European highway
agencies are addressing climate change mitigation and adaptation and it bears
looking at by people in the US who are confronting the same issues.

The report, called Acting
on Climate Change, was published by the Conference of European Directors of
Roads (a sort of European AASHTO) and is available here.

The authors suggest that mitigation and adaptation are
“fundamentally different” and suggest a distinctive approach for each.

With respect to mitigation, they argue that new strategies
are needed.Business as usual
planning just won’t meet national or Europe-wide targets for reducing
greenhouse gas emissions.Instead
of generating typical solutions based on standard forecasting, they recommend
using scenario planning and pursuing a wide range of solutions, including more
efficient transportation modes, renewable energy, and reduced demand.Building new roads could, in fact, be
counterproductive.I was
particularly struck by their takeaway from a recent IPCC report warning that “infrastructure
developments that lock societies into GHG-intensive emissions pathways may be
difficult or very costly to change and that this reinforces the importance of
early action for ambitious mitigation.”

With respect to adaptation, the authors appear to feel more
comfortable taking a practical, engineering approach.Rather than attempting to put together a theoretical
construct, they offer a set of “templates” based on Danish and Swedish
experience.These templates are
basically checklists to suggest to national road authorities the climate change
adaptation issues they may need to confront.The template subjects are Management, Improvement,
Prevention, and Cooperation.For
each subject they offer a list of topics that should be considered.For instance, under Management they
list Incident Management, Information, Clearing up, and Depot equipment.Each of these is further broken down
into topics.So Incident
management (defined as “How to handle given situations in climate change
induced crises, e.g., flooding and landslides.”) includes:

·Incorporating climate (weather) incidents into
emergency planning

·Drills that include weather incidents

·Guidelines

·Call-out services

The report is also laced with fascinating examples from
European experience (Norway is developing “Urban Environment Agreements,” which
mandate that all future transportation demand be met by transit, walking, or
biking.Sweden has set a goal of
having a fossil-free vehicle fleet by 2030.).

Congrats to the CEDR team for a thoughtful approach to
providing real-world tools to agencies confronting climate change.